Overachievers Expect Perfection

Each day, as I walk through the hall following class, I wonder if, as a class, we have criticized the characters in the book too harshly. I realize it may be easier to judge and criticize someone who repeatedly appears weak and pitiable through the text, but at times I feel as if we expect too much from a character or characters. After reading Othello, we discussed how our initial frustration towards the characters for failing to realize Iago’s evil intents was almost irrational since, in order to realize his tricks, the characters would have had to constantly question each others’ actions, something we today would refer to as paranoia. After realizing our unrealistic expectations from all of the characters in Othello, I would have thought that we would have had more patience with the characters in the The Namesake, but that clearly did not hold true. At least once every class period, someone, oftentimes myself, expresses frustration towards one character or another in the book. For instance, today we mentioned how people felt frustrated that Gogol rediscovered the book only because his mom encouraged him to clean out his room, not because he himself had the aspiration to explore a novel from his father. Other students expressed irritation that Gogol waited until the age of 32 to read a novel his father gave him for his fourteenth birthday. Do you really think a disappointed fourteen-year old, hoping for exciting presents rather than a book given to him because it relates to his name, which he hates, is going to enthusiastically and immediately read the book? I know on numerous birthdays, I have completely disregarded and dismissed “boring” gifts, despite the giver, and have never given those gifts another thought. I understand that Gogol should have displayed more interest, even if feigned, in the book, as not to completely dismiss his father, but I feel as if we must give Gogol a break. No one is perfect, and, perhaps, at the age of fourteen he might not have understood the story anyway. As I think back on the book as a whole, I realize that, had I been in Gogol’s position, with his father’s book, with his name, with the issue with Moushumi and her name and with Moushumi’s affair, I would likely have acted in a fashion similar to Gogol, and therefore I feel I have judged him too harshly throughout the entire novel.